CHEMISTRY AND CONSERVATIOX 



423 



sources is often preventable by chemi- 

 cal agencies. Chemistry has already 

 done enough to prove its potency, and 

 its influence is felt in every branch of 

 industry. Adopting the classification 

 of the Commission, we shall find the 

 chemist active under every heading. 

 Under minerals, we must note that 

 metallurgy is essentially a group of 

 chemical processes by which the metals 

 are separated from the ores ; a separa- 

 tion which may be eitlier wasteful or 

 economical. Within recent years, 

 within the memory of members of this 

 society, the available wealth of the 

 world in metals has been enormously 

 increased. By the cyanide process for 

 extracting gold, ores are now profitably 

 worked which were formerly worth- 

 less, and at the same time the demand 

 for mercury has been decreased. The 

 Bessemer process for steel making, 

 now also modified for use in copper 

 smelting, is purely chemical ; and its 

 later modification, the Gilchrist-Thom- 

 as process, applies similar principles 

 to phosphatic ores, which were pre- 

 viously of little value. Furthermore, 

 in the last-named process, phosphatic 

 slag is produced, which is useful as a 

 fertilizer and helps to relieve the drain 

 upon our rapidly wasting supplies of 

 phosphate rock. Chemists are now 

 studying, with much success, the prob- 

 lem of preventing corrosion in iron, a 

 research which will prolong the life 

 of iron structures and thereby reduce 

 the waste of ore. The use of coal slack 

 by briquetting methods is largely based 

 upon diemical investigations : the sal- 

 vage of by-products from coke ovens, 

 such as tar and ammonia, is wholly due 

 to chemical research ; coal is further 

 economized by the study of boiler 

 waters and the consequent prevention 

 of boiler scale. Even inferior coals, 

 lignites, are now converted into what 

 is known as producer gas, and so are 

 transformed into the. best kind of fuel. 

 Petroleum is refined by chemical 

 means, and every fraction of it is 

 saved, either as illuminating oil, as 

 gasoline, as a lubricant^ as vaseline, or 

 as paraffin. These are all notable 

 achievements, but greater are yet to 



come. Enormous quantities of valua- 

 ble substance* are thrown into the at- 

 mosphere in fumes from smelters, 

 which should, and probably can be, 

 partly saved. Electro-chemistry is 

 rapidly developing a large group of 

 new industries, making such metals as 

 aluminum, magnesium, and calcium 

 available for use, and it is reaching out 

 into other fields of electro-metallurgy 

 in which electric heat, generated by 

 water power, will be used for smelting 

 other metals, thereby reducing the con- 

 sumption of coal. 



In forestry also, the influence of the 

 chemist is distinctly felt. The sprays 

 used for destroying noxious insects are 

 chemical preparations. The manufac- 

 ture of wood alcohol is a chemical 

 process, which may be either wasteful 

 or economical. Turpentine is now pro- 

 duced waste fully, but the waste can be 

 diminished by careful refining, and 

 furthermore, the chemist can aid in 

 discovering substitutes for it. Substi- 

 tutes for tan bark are also to be sought 

 for by means of chemical investiga- 

 tions. Another distinctively chemical 

 operation is the preparation of wood 

 pulp for paper making, a process 

 which is now wasteful in the highest 

 degree. It is estimated that for every 

 ton of pulp now made by the sulphite 

 process, more than a ton of waste ma- 

 terial is allowed to drain away into our 

 streams. How to make this material 

 useful is a chemical problem^ and so 

 also, in great part, is the investigation 

 of other, now useless, fibers which may 

 replace the more valuable wood. The 

 preservation of wood from decay is 

 still another art in which chemistry is 

 predominant. 



In preserving the fertility of our 

 land, chemistry has an important part 

 to play. Our knowledge of fertilizers, 

 of the food on which crops can thrive, 

 is entirely chemical so far as accuracy 

 is concerned, and must be applied in 

 accordance with chemical principles. A 

 fertilizer which is useless, and there- 

 fore wasted on one soil, may be need- 

 ed on another. Certain fertilizers, like 

 the Stassfurt salts, Peruvian guano, 

 the Chilean nitrates, and phosphate 



